Festival gallery may become permanent home for the arts

Arts Minister Josepha Madigan is to meet with Galway Arts Festival and Galway 2020 to discuss the provision of a long-awaited municipal art gallery in the city.

The meeting, which will take place after this year’s Festival ends, is being arranged by Galway West Fine Gael TD Hildegarde Naughton.

Deputy Naughton is proposing that a city centre space, owned by An Post – which was made available to the Festival as a temporary gallery for this year – be given over to Galway’s arts groups.

An Post loaned the building – which is accessed from William Street – to the Festival in April. Until then, it looked like the county’s flagship arts event would be unable host its main visual arts show for 2019 because it had no space large enough.

The lack of a municipal gallery has been a thorn in the side of the festival for more than 40 years, but its Artistic Director Paul Fahy is hopeful that an end may finally be in sight.

She brought Minister Richard Bruton, who has responsibility for An Post, to see the facility last Friday. Minister Bruton and An Post CEO David McRedmond were met at the gallery by Paul Fahy and Festival CEO John Crumlish.

“He was amazed at what we had done in ten weeks,” said Paul Fahy.

See full story – and full coverage of the Arts Festival – in this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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